Samsung SSD data loss error on Linux is finally fixed

After all this time, Linux recently announced that it has released a patch to solve the problem. In fact, this isn't exactly a fix to the root of the problem, but rather a feature-restricted fix that is related to the bug.

According to the results of Linux research, Queued Trim commands on Samsung 860 and 870 SSDs cause problems on Intel, ASmedia and Marvell SATA AHCI controllers. Older AMD computers will have the most serious problems.

Therefore, in the newly released patch Linux has decided to disable Queued Trim on Intel, ASmedia and Marvell SATA controllers and on older AMD computers. Furthermore, the Native Command Queuing (NCQ) feature is also completely disabled to fix the problem.

NCQ is a technology on top of SATA that allows systems to optimize data queuing and movement across workloads for best performance. On the other hand, TRIM allows the drive to intelligently free up space so that there is always free space, without the need to delete necessary data.

Oddly, Queued TRIM seems to have been disabled on all Samsung 800 series SSD models. However, Samsung tells Linux that only the 840 and 850 SSD models need to disable Queued TRIM. But in reality, this is not the case because many users have had problems on both 860 EVO and 870 EVO SSD models.

According to veteran users on forums like Reddit, you should not use Samsung SSDs if you often work on Linux operating systems.

Micah Soto

Update 06 September 2021